CBN Injects $335.43m into Retail SMIS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in its resolve
to guarantee liquidity in the market, injected the sum of $355.43m into the
Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) on Friday, March 9, 2018.Figures obtained from the CBN on Friday revealed
that the figure was to meet requests in the agricultural, airlines, petroleum
products and raw materials and machinery sectors.The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate
Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor confirmed the figures,
reiterating that the CBN interventions in the market were aimed at sustaining
liquidity in the market as well as boosting production and trade.He explained that, with increasing accretion to
the country’s reserve, the Bank is in a much better position to ensure
liquidity in the inter-bank sector of the market and as such would continue to
intervene in order to drive growth in the economy and guarantee stability in
the market, particularly now that the economy had gained steam due to an
upsurge in the non-oil sector.With the rates closing at N360/$1 on
Friday, March 9, 2018, Mr. Okorafor, expressed confidence that the Bank’s forex
intervention underscored its determination to maintain the country’s external
reserves in order to safeguard the international value of the Naira.It will be recalled that the CBN, in its last SMIS
in February 2018, injected the sum of $321.4 million in the interbank market,
while also intervening in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of
$210,000,000, comprising of $100million for the
wholesale segment and $55 million for both the Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) and invisibles segment.Related News1. Gross
Official Reserves Increased by US1.81bn in February 20182. CBN Boosts
Forex Market With $210m3. Forex:
Inter-Bank Market Gets $210 Boost4. Dramatic
Turnaround in FX Availability5. Forex
Market Gets CBN’s $210m Boost6. CBN
Cancelled Charges on the Sale of Foreign Exchange for Invisible
Transactions7. Forex: CBN
Intervenes in Retail SMIS With $325.64m8. Gross
Official Reserves Moved Across the US$40bn Threshold, and Counting